Category Archives: Events + Announcements

From January 3rd until March 31st, I had the amazing opportunity to live in Pierre Berton’s house up in Dawson City, Yukon. It was the best three months of my life. Seriously, the best.

Not only was it a cozy home with a great space for getting writing done, the community up there is friendly, welcoming and vibrant, rife with stuff to do!

You might be thinking, “A small town in the middle of the Yukon in the dead of winter? What could there be to do?”
Well, I curled, I hiked, I snowshoed. I went dog mushing. I played a lot of ping pong. I went to trivia nights. I attended potlucks and worked with the kids at the school on writing for the newspaper, and on writing a survival guide for school. I went to concerts, movies, and plays. I also learned how to skijore, which is the best! It’s cross country skiing, but you also harness your body to a sled dog. They pull while you ski, and it’s so fast and sweaty and super fun! I saw the northern lights a lot, and I got to take a weekend trip up to Inuvik, which is in the Northwest Territories and even farther north than I was!

I would say that it was a once in a lifetime experience, but I don’t think it is. I’m already planning my return trip back next winter.

The beginning of 2017 has started with a great adventure: I am living in Dawson City, Yukon for three months as the Berton House resident!

If you’re wondering what the Berton House is, it’s a wonderful little home in Northern Canada (close to Alaska). My job while I’m here is to write, and discover Canada’s north. Dawson City was the heart of the gold rush in the 1890s, when the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nations site swelled to 40 000 people (today about 1,500 people live full-time in Dawson).

The Berton House itself was gifted to The Writers’ Trust of Canada by Pierre Berton, a prolific Canadian writer (as you can see from the photos here of his library). It’s a cozy retreat from the world, and I’m loving it so far.

I’ve only just arrived, but I hope to keep you updated with a few interesting stories and photos of my wintery time here. To keep you going, here’s a few photos so far.

It’s out! Notes from the —- Life of a Total Genius is on the shelves! The end of the #TotalGenius trilogy… I’m so pleased with this one, so I hope that you like it. It was a bit of a strange feeling to receive my copies of this book; I thought I would be thrilled to get to see them, but actually, I was pretty sad. Why? Well, it’s hard to say good-bye to Arthur and his buddies (and his enemies too!). I realized that I wasn’t going to get to write more snarky Arthur responses, or try and have a battle of wits with myself while writing text banter between Arthur and Robbie. I’m excited about the next few projects I have waiting to write though, and who knows? Maybe Arthur Bean will make a cameo appearance along the way…

I am excited to share this book with kids and adults this year though! I’m participating in Wordfest in Calgary in a couple of weeks; I’ll be heading to the Yukon in January, and I was chosen to be part of the 2017 TD Canada Book Week tour, so there’s lots of chances to talk about my love of Arthur coming up!
Want me to come speak to your class? I’d love to! Send me a note through the contact page, and I’ll get right back to you!

I am very, very excited to announce that I’ve been chosen for the Berton House residency next year!

And you’re reading this and you’re like, “What is that?”

The Berton House is in Dawson City, Yukon. It was Pierre Berton’s childhood home, and now it’s a retreat run by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Four writers are chosen every year to spend three months in the Yukon, to work on their writing projects and experience Pierre Berton’s north.

And I’m one of them!
I’ll be heading north next year, from January to April, to write a middle-grade novel about a night at the aquarium gone wrong. I’ll be experiencing long, dark nights and the north at what I think of as its northiest. And I’m going to try dog-sledding, and photographing northern lights and snowshoeing in the twilight… it’s going to be magical.

Summer is coming, and what does that mean?
It means that the adventures of Arthur Bean will be available soon!

Notes from the —– Life of a Total Genius is coming to bookstores near you September 1st. Follow the adventures of Arthur as he heads into grade nine. He writes a play, he gets in trouble… I’ll leave the rest for you to discover…

I had the chance to launch my second book at Kidsbooks in Vancouver on September 3rd. It was amazing to see all the friendly faces, and talk about Arthur’s new adventures to friends, family and fans. I also changed my hair colour for the first time in my life. This was exciting for me, although I still feel like I’m wearing a wig.

It was such an honour to be at Monkeyshines Books in Calgary for a book launch in my hometown. It was a blanket of love from people I’ve known my whole life. My grade five teacher Mrs. Lewis came, which was magical, and a few other teachers from my elementary school too! Not only that, but one of my favourite teachers of all time sent his mother to my book launch because he couldn’t make it. Now that’s dedication to your students! We sold out of books before the event even started!

It’s way late, but here are some photos from my book launches on Galiano Island (at Galiano Island Books, which is an awesome indie bookstore; one of the best!), and in Vancouver at the Writers’ Exchange. So many friendly faces!

I had the distinct pleasure of participating in the Ottawa Writers’ Festival in September 2014. I visited five different schools in the Ottawa area, chatting about writing and my book. It was my first foray into school visits, and they were amazing. I’m hooked!

I also had the chance to do a super cute book launch at Kaleidoscope Kids Books. The staff were so lovely and accommodating. They even sent me home with books to read and extra brain cupcakes, baked specially for my launch!